Family Relics: The challenge of living in the present

by Stefan Dobroiu

21/10/2015 - Ivan Cherkelov’s film received the Heart of the City of Varna Award at the 33rd Golden Rose Film Festival

Alexander Benev and Blaje Dimitrov in Family Relics

Shown at the 33rd edition of the Golden Rose Film Festival, which showcases the newest Bulgarian features and short films, Ivan Cherkelov’s Family Relics[+see also: trailerfilm profile] won the second most important trophy, the Heart of the City of Varna. It also won an award from the Union of Bulgarian Filmmakers. The film, which shows the events experienced by the members of a family over a few days, relates to a certain feeling of disenchantment towards the present, a sentiment shared by many other recent Bulgarian features.

Starting off with a montage of atmospheric city scenes, Family Relics soon becomes an homage to the lush Bulgarian countryside. It is summer, and several characters, apparently unconnected to each other, are exploring the wild landscape. A husband and wife drive their all-terrain car over muddy roads in the forest; two half-brothers search for the psychiatric hospital where their father is locked up; and a teenage girl, alone in the family cabin, fills her day with random acts after breaking up with her boyfriend over the phone.

The film is bolstered by some very strong performances from several generations of Bulgarian actors. Alexander Benev, who may become the new Ovanes Torosyan of local cinema after playing main characters in both Thirst and Family Relics, is Mak, a teenager who meanders through the wilderness, waiting for an occasion to talk to his father (Ventsislav Zankov) in the hospital. Together with his brother Sancho (Blaje Dimitrov, also in another Golden Rose contender, The Woman of My Life), Mak represents the turning point in the story and a means to calibrate hope: his present is not haunted by mistakes he made in the past; therefore, there is hope for a better, meaningful future.

Famous Bulgarian actress Jana Karaivanova (also the host of a Bulgarian film festival in New York) and Andrey Andreev play a middle-aged couple who become stranded in the middle of the forest when their car gets stuck in the mud. She talks about faith, prayers and superstition, derided by her more practical husband, but her words suggest that something magical has been lost from her life. Other characters say or do absurd things that show an obvious lack of purpose, slowly, obstinately revealing the backbone of Cherkelov’s screenplay.

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